


Of All the Coffee Shops in All the World...

by TheStoryteller13



Series: BattleKing Trope Trip [2]
Category: The Magicians (TV)
Genre: Alternate Identities, F/F, Fluff, coffee shop AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-30
Updated: 2019-01-30
Packaged: 2019-10-19 05:12:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,503
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17595230
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheStoryteller13/pseuds/TheStoryteller13
Summary: Eventually they both need to look away, and then Janet is standing up and saying something about getting them a pastry to share and walking away and Sam is left to sink into the booth, blushing, and thinking about how much of a disaster she is. How much of a nervous mess Janet makes her.





	Of All the Coffee Shops in All the World...

“Can you _go_ any slower?” Janet mumbles impatiently under her breath as she waits. She sighs, looking back to her phone, trying to get as much work done as she can while standing in a coffee shop. She hates waiting, she hates lines, she hates being surrounded by all the other people. This is exactly why she always has Sophie get her coffee. 

“Janet?” The barista calls. She has to restrain herself from angrily saying ‘finally!’. She may be a busy woman, she may work in a tall tower above most people, but she still understands what it’s like to be one of the little guys. Hell, years ago, before she’d gotten her dream job, Janet  _had_ been one of these poor barista’s. 

Still, she has places to be, and so, she takes her coffee and, not looking up from her phone, she hurries to the door. 

Only to be run into by whoever is walking in. Coffee splashes it’s way across her— very expensive— blouse. 

“ _Fuck_.” Janet curses

“Oh my god, I’m so sorry.” The redhead who’d ran into her says. Janet resists the urge to scream. 

“It’s fine.” Janet says. 

“I think I ruined your shirt. I definitely spilled at least most of your coffee. Can I buy you another one to apologize?” 

“Fine.” Janet looks up at the woman, notes her simple button up shirt and blazer, her red hair tied into a tight bun.

The woman smiles, “I’m Sam, by the way.” 

“Janet.” Janet replies, following her as she gets a place in line. She drops her coffee in the trash can on the way over. 

“I’m really sorry about your shirt.” Sam says. 

“It’s okay. I can change when I get back to work.” Janet says. 

“Oh, what do you do?” Sam asks, just making conversation. Janet looks up at her, smiles kindly, trying to be nice. The woman  _is_ buying her a coffee after all. 

“I’m an editor at a fashion magazine.” Janet says. 

“Oh! That, uh, hip thing, right?” Sam asks. 

Janet laughs lightly, “HipBone, yeah.” 

“That’s an odd name.” Same notes. 

“Hey, I just work there.” Janet shrugs. 

Sam smiles. They get to the counter, order their coffees, then move over to wait. 

“So what do you do?” Janet asks. 

“I’m a cop.” Sam says, moving her jacket aside to show the badge that rests on her belt. 

“Ooh.” Janet draws out the word, “Come in here for the donuts and coffee then?” 

Sam rolls her eyes but laughs at the joke. “I don’t actually like donuts.”

“Really?” Janet asks, putting as much joking surprise in her tone as possible. 

Sam nods, “I just come here for my lunch break.”

The barista calls their names and they grab their coffee. 

Sam starts to walk away, saying, “Enjoy your coffee.” 

Janet smiles, waves at her, says, “You too.” 

_***_

Sam sighs, reaches for her coffee cup only to find it empty, and then groans. She checks the clock, finds that it’s time for her lunch break anyway, and gets up. She stretches, looks one last time over the papers on her desk, then makes her way out to the coffee shop. 

It’s a nice day, warm, and Sam catches a glimpse of a familiar face when she walks into the coffee shop. Dark hair, sharp sense of dress, the look on her face like she’d so much rather be anywhere than where she is. 

“Janet?” She asks. 

The other woman turns around, bright smile on her face, suddenly she looks like she’s perfectly happy being here, “Sam. Hi!”

“Didn’t think I’d be seeing you here again so soon.” Sam says, taking the spot just behind her in line. 

“Usually you wouldn’t; I make my assistant Sophie get my coffee for me, but she’s out sick for the foreseeable future so now I’m stuck standing in lines.” Janet rolls her eyes as she explains. 

Sam laughs lightly, “Can’t be all bad, least you’ve got a coffee friend now.” 

Janet gasps, “I do! don’t I?” 

They both smile, step forward in line, then lapse into easy conversation. Sam lets Janet complain about her coworkers and deadlines and a whole bunch of things about fashion that Sam doesn’t understand. Janet talks with her hands, gesturing wildly while still managing to keep her bag safely tucked into the crook of her elbow. And her face is animated too, even with an eye patch— that Sam decides to ask about later, in case it’s something traumatic or personal that Janet would rather not talk about so openly.  When they get to the counter Janet orders, then prompts Sam to do so as well before paying for both, explaining it away as, “This way I don’t owe you anything for buying me coffee yesterday.” Sam doesn’t want to argue that her buying yesterday was an apology, so she lets it go.

They stand off to the side while they wait and Janet asks Sam about her case. And Sam is taken aback by the thought that Janet would be interested in hearing about her work so she starts talking. It’s nice to get an outside perspective, even if she can’t share all of the details, and it’s nice to talk through her thoughts out loud. Janet notices the way she keeps herself contained, hands on her hips or crossed across her chest. How Sam gets a cute little wrinkle between her eyebrows when she’s thinking through her words. 

Their coffee arrives, they exchange goodbyes, and then part ways. 

*** 

Over the next week it becomes routine to get coffee together. Janet usually gets there first, waiting outside the shop so they can go in together. Sam would have thought conversation would tapper off the more they talked, having almost nothing in common, but it turns out Janet is more knowledgeable in areas Sam wouldn’t have even thought she knew about. They fall into an easy pattern and Sam finds there’s a familiarity in Janet, something she can’t quite put her finger on. 

One week turns into three and then they’re no longer meeting just at the coffee shop, they have each others numbers and they text almost constantly, they go out for girls nights, they go to movies. Eventually they just become friends. Late nights on couches in each others places, shared ice cream on kitchen floors, weekend dance parties in living rooms at 3 A.M. It’s fun, and it’s nice. 

And… it’s odd. Sam doesn’t usually let herself get close friends, she’s too busy being a cop. And Sam gets the feeling that Janet doesn’t have many friends either. They need each other. That weird feeling Sam gets in her stomach that tells her that this isn’t someone new only grows. 

*** 

They’re in a coffee shop, late at night when both of them are off work, when Sam asks Janet about her eye. Janet reaches toward it, unconsciously self-conscious, and looks down at the table.

“Nothing happened to my eye, exactly,” She starts, gaining the courage to look back up at Sam, “It’s just that my eye is weird. Colors don’t look right and I see a bunch of crazy shit all the time.” 

“Have you seen a doctor?” Sam asks. 

Janet nods, “Yeah and he was about as helpful as a pair of pocket-less jeans. All he did was say my eye was ‘normal’ and give me an eye-patch.” 

Sam takes the hand Janet has on the table and gives it a tight squeeze, “Well, I have to say you totally  _rock_ the eye-patch look.” 

“Yeah?” Janet asks, striking various poses centered around the patch until they both burst out laughing. 

Janet doesn’t pull her hand away from Sam’s for the rest of the night. 

*** 

The rain is coming down hard. Sam stands outside the coffee shop with an umbrella protecting her from the cascade, she checks her phone for a message from Janet. There isn’t one. It’s strange because they always tell each other when they’ll be running late. Several minutes later she sees Janet running through the rain toward her, holding her jacket over her head. Sam rolls her eyes and shifts the umbrella to tell her silently to stand under it as well. 

Janet’s momentum causes her to stop way too close to Sam, who puts an arm around Janet’s waist out of instinct. 

“Sorry I’m late, I wasn’t expecting all of  _this_.” Janet says, shuffling closer for warmth. 

Sam wonders if she even notices how close they are, how her arm is still wrapped around her, if Janet even cares. Maybe it’s just her, but lately Sam’s been thinking of the two of them. Her thoughts mostly roam to how much she would like to touch Janet, to hold her hand, to kiss her, to know what it would be like to openly tell her she likes her all the time. 

“It’s okay,” Sam says with a smile, “Let’s just get you inside.” 

There’s a shorter line today, so Janet gets the coffee’s while Sam finds a place to sit. When she comes over with the coffee Janet sits down next to Sam, instead of across from her like they usually do. Sam tries her best not to read too far into it. 

Janet rattles on about her day at work before taking a sip of her coffee and then she stops herself to say, “Oh! This is amazing! Do you wanna try?” 

Janet offers her coffee to Sam and watches her reaction. She doesn’t want to let on that it’s been a while since she’s tried actually flirting with someone, but she’s assuming offering her coffee and sitting closer to her will get the message across well. Janet doesn’t really talk about or listen to her own feelings, but she couldn’t deny that lately she’d felt a growing affection toward the other girl, and Janet has never been one to deny herself something she wants. 

Still, Janet isn’t sure where Sam stands, if she feels the same spark that Janet does, so she wants to take this slow, tread carefully. 

Sam takes a sip of Janet’s coffee, and offers her own in return. Janet leaves a lipstick stain on the rim of the cup and Sam doesn’t bother with wiping it away. Their shoulders bump, their eyes catch. Sam wants to ask her what she’s feeling, what she’s thinking, but she doesn’t. Janet wants to tangle her hand in Sams hair, to play with it, because it’s not tied up today and Janet loves how Sam looks with her hair down. 

Eventually they both need to look away, and then Janet is standing up and saying something about getting them a pastry to share and walking away and Sam is left to sink into the booth, blushing, and thinking about how much of a disaster she is. How much of a nervous  _mess_ Janet makes her. 

*** 

It’s another late night. Janet works tirelessly as one of the last people to go home. She’s used to late nights, to all-nighters— her time in in college prepared her for this. The building is quiet, still, and it allows her to work in peace, without all the drama or people coming into her office to tell her that yet another thing has gone wrong. She loves her job, really does, but sometimes the people get on her nerves. 

A knock on her door is startling, but not that surprising. Probably just another person coming to say goodnight and to tell her not to work too hard. 

“Yes?” She calls, not too friendly. 

“So  _this_ is where you spend your nights.” Sam’s voice is a welcome reprieve. 

Janet looks up with a smile, and watches as Sam moves around her office, coffee tray in one hand, brown paper bag in the other. 

“Yeah. Welcome to HipBone.” Janet says, leaning back and spreading her arms out. 

Sam looks around the space for a moment before setting the coffee on Janet’s desk. And that’s when the bell rings in her head. 

“Shit! We were supposed to meet for coffee tonight.” Janet realizes. 

Sam nods, “When you didn’t show I figured you were swamped. Not to worry though; I brought the coffee shop to you.” 

She hands Janet her coffee and then opens the bag, saying, “I also got you that weird pastry thing you like.” 

Janet takes the pastry, takes a bite, groans and says, “Oh! You’re a gem.” 

“Where would you be without me?” Sam asks, taking her own coffee over to the couch in Janet’s office. 

“Endlessly fucked, that’s where.” Janet says with a smile as she moves over to the couch as well. 

Sam looks at her, just looks at her, for a long moment, and after a while Janet blushes, “What?” 

“We need to talk.” Sam says, though not in an ominous way. 

“We do?” Janet asks, getting suddenly self-conscious. 

“I like you, Janet.” Sam says, and Janet has to hold herself back from cursing. 

She’d been hoping they could just skip this part and go right into the spontaneous making out and then segue nicely into just being in a relationship. Janet never thought they were going to have an actual conversation about their feelings and shit. 

“I think I like you too.” Janet says simply. 

“You think?” Sam asks. 

“Look, I’m not too good with this ‘feelings’ thing, alright? I think I like you, you’re certainly attractive and I don’t hate you, so I’d be down to seeing where this goes.” Janet explains. 

“Oh, would you, now?” Sam asks, leaning closer. 

“I would.” Janet says, leaning in as well, anticipating a kiss. 

“And you’re sure? You’re not going to, like, freak out on me?” Sam asks, and Janet can tell she’s stalling just to drag it out so she says, 

“Are you going to talk all night or are you going to kiss me?”

Sam rolls her eyes but smiles, takes the front of Janet’s shirt and tugs her forward… only to have coffee splash all over her. 

Sam gasps in shock, jumping back. Janet is rambling out apologies in front of her. 

“Oh my  _god_  I totally forgot I was holding that and you pulled me forward and I’m so sorry-” 

Sam starts laughing, setting her coffee down on the floor and taking Janet’s as well. 

“Why are you laughing?” Janet asks, starting to smile despite herself.

“Hey, now we’re even.” Sam says. 

Janet can’t help but laugh a little too. Sam leans back over, pushes a strand of Janet’s hair behind her ear, the both of them start to calm down from the laughter. 

Janet’s eyes flick from Sam’s face to her shirt and then she says, “Do you need to change? I’m sure we’ve got a spare shirt somewhere around here.” 

“Janet Pluchinsky, are you trying to tell me to take my shirt off?” Sam asks. 

“No, but I wouldn’t complain if you did.” Janet says with a smile. 

Sam just shakes her head, and then pulls Janet in to  _finally_ kiss her. 

**Author's Note:**

> Any time I think "Sam and Janet" it plays in my head to the tune of "Brad and Janet" from RHPS, so, you know, there's that...


End file.
